Mechanical
by RQK
Summary: A certain monster has already redeemed himself, and in light of his mechanical experize, he has the job of fixing the most important machine in the factory. But what is the machine? Oneshot.


Redemption was a very fickle thing. Even after the monster had barely escaped back into the monster world, it took a lot to win back sentiments. Proving one had changed was very difficult, and for the monster that was no exception.

It kind of helped that they had found out on their own that he had a heart. But that was a year ago.

And besides, now that laughter was known to be more powerful than scream, that didn't matter anyways. The monster had tried his hand at it a few times, and beyond his ability to turn his body into some crazy artwork, he wasn't good at it. It wasn't for him anyways.

But that didn't matter now. There was a job to be done.

On that note, Randall needed the keys. This meant going toward the front desk.

But he didn't have to go that far. Sulley and Mike departed a nearby laughfloor. They were a bit busy in their conversation. However, Sulley did stop for a moment to turn to the purple reptile. "Oh, there you are."

Randall was a bit surprised, "Huh? You've been looking for me?"

"Yeah."

Randall smirked, "Well I hate to break it to you – well… maybe I don't – but I can't really talk right now."

And to his surprise, Mike knew what he was talking about, "Oh hey, yeah. You have to go fix that machine." She pointed toward the laughfloor, "Celia accidentally brought the key with her, and then left it there…"

On that note, Sulley lifted some papers on his clipboard, and produced the little golden key. He looked at it for a brief moment before throwing it toward Randall, "Here."

Randall didn't even move, aside from his arm. The key arrived in his ready hand a moment later. His hand immediately closed around it to keep it from falling. "Why would she take it away from the desk in the first place?"

"She might have gone looking for you, lizard boy." Mike half-joked.

"Yeah yeah yeah," Randall rolled his eyes. "At least I don't have to walk all the way there now."

Sulley nodded, "Allrighty then. Take care." He waved, turning to walk off with Mike.

"Sullivan." Randall suddenly called. The blue monster stopped in his tracks a moment later. "Uhmmm. I haven't said this before… Thanks… for the jar." He paused, "It means a lot."

Sulley knew why this was so late. He nodded, "No problem."

In a hurry, Randall immediately turned and headed toward the rear of the factory. He didn't say anything more to the two monsters, trying to keep his image intact. The fact he had just said that probably broke that, but he knew that they knew.

Key in hand, he soon reached a door at the very end of the long hall. Inserting it into the keyhole, the door clicked, and then swung open a moment later.

Total darkness engulfed Randall as he entered the tunnel. Save for a single square of light behind him and a ways in front of him, the hallway was dark. Randall found it amusing to camouflage himself to the blackness of the hall.

Randall soon reached the other end of the tunnel, emerging into a gigantic hall. For a moment he ignored it and looked down at himself. He was colored black, just as he thought he would be. "I'm a genius." he chuckled.

He shifted his attention back to the hall. Looking around, he saw doors flying everywhere. Going along their tracks with ease, a few doors entered the tunnels that lead to the laugh floors. Randall looked over at the wall.

Immediately his eyes fell on a red door. He recognized it immediately, and chuckled. That was his door. That was the door Fungus had come through and discovered him at. _They still need to get that out of the system._ he thought.

He immediately winced as the memories of events following that appeared. A month of testimonies and deliberations. It did lead to an overturning of the banishment (which would have been done by the CDA anyways had Sulley and Mike not done so), and instead he was sentenced to six months. It made the two months of banishment look like a cakewalk.

And then he remembered Sullivan going and pulling some strings. He got out after three months and had his record wiped clean. He came to be reemployed at the corportation. After all, he had some debts to pay.

Randall looked to his left, a staircase ran down the wall toward the floor of the hall. He looked down momentarily to the surface down below. It had to be at least 500 feet below ground. And there was but one room below the surface.

As he descended the stairs, his mind went back to how things were. Because of what had happened while he was gone (and everyone heard the story sooner or later), attitudes toward Randall were a bit more relaxed.

Of course, Randall had been under considerable stress, and now that he was not, he was a much nicer fellow. While not everyone had fully forgiven him, they did concede that fact.

It took Randall a while to reach the bottom, but when he did, he looked up. The blue of the sky could barely be seen through the large window on the ceiling; the window was small from down below.

And then Randall noticed something else. He looked down and realized he was still a black color. "Haha, silly me." he chuckled, shaking off the color and returning to his purple self.

He made his way toward the center of the gigantic hall. The journey would probably take five minutes at the very least. And every so often, he found himself looking up at the doors as they all went about their way.

He arrived at the center of the room, and found a single set of stairs disappearing into the floor. That was where he needed to be. He then went over toward the descent and took his first steps down the sloped corridor.

This stairwell, however, was dimly light by power lines going toward a door at the very bottom. Randall thought that was very clever. As a lot of electricity went through them, they glowed. What better was to save energy than to use the lit lines as a light source?

He also knew why there was so much power going through the lines. He approached a door, and on the other side was the most complicated machinery in the entire factory. And Randall knew machinery; he was the one that built the Scream Extractor.

He entered a large cylindrical room. From the ceiling hung a mass of white. On the main chassis was the Monsters Incorporated logo. The machine, which Randall had nicknamed Glados, then swung around to face him.

"Hello experimental subject number one, would you like some cake?"

Randall didn't even bat an eye, "That was funny the first time, but now it's just… stale." Then he shook his head, "And we all know you can't make any cake Glados."

The machine whirred in place, "Well then, what business do you have here, Mr. Boggs?"

Randall looked up at the machine, "You said the door recognition processor has been malfunctioning?"

"Yes."

"Indeed." Randall nodded. "Which is why you have not been able to process new doors from the human world?"

"That is correct."

"All righty then." Randall replied. He then bent down, readying himself for a jump. "I'm coming up, you better hold still." He pushed off the ground with all of his might, and slapped one of his hands onto the fame.

He slid for a moment before the suction of his hands took hold. He barely made it onto the machine.

"Careful," Glados remarked, "You do not want to fall."

"I know I know." Randall said, rolling his eyes. He placed another hand onto the chassis, and then lifted himself up so that the rest of his limbs could hold on.

Now that he was on the computer itself, he was then able to climb up. Hand by hand he traced a path up to where he needed to be.

The computer shook, "Oh oh oh! That tickles!"

Randall looked down at the bottom, where he knew the brain of the machine was. "Will you stop that? Gah, I still don't know why they made you sentient."

Not backing down, the super-computer replied "Because I need to be to perform my best."

Randall sighed in resignation, "Uh huh." That was the only thing the super-computer besides baking a cake, it could not detect sarcasm."

He reached a control panel at the very top of the skeleton. Opening it, he glanced inside. A dozen wires went this way and that, and Randall scanned them all.

"Oh, here we are." He saw that the wires twirled together into a single point, which plugged into a small socket on the left wall of the panel. However, this point was unplugged. "This thing right here came loose. I wonder how that happened?" he said rhetorically. With a quick movement of the hand, he placed it back into the socket.

Immediately some whiring was heard, and his head spun toward the glass the lined the walls. On the other side of the glass buzz saws, dremels, and all kinds of cutting materials whirred to life.

Randall nodded, this was where every single door in the factory was made. It took a powerful machine to glance into the human world and make the monster ends of doors. After all, they needed exact replicas of every door if they were to function as portals.

He chuckled, that was exactly how he had been found. He took residence in an abandoned house, and fixed the place up. He had his own closet. He immediately figured Glados must have scanned his door, and Fungus was assigned to it. The rest was history.

"Better?" he said, looking down at the brain of the computer.

"Yes." Glados replied simply.

"Good." Randall sneered playfully, "Now you can get back to work." A moment later he let go and fell back to the ground. "You have a lot of portals to makes."

There was a chuckling sound, though Randall mistook it as the supercomputer vibrating. "Yes. Now we're thinking with portals."

"You mean doors."

"Exactly."

The purple monster nodded. "Well then, I will let you go to work then." He turned around and started to head toward the door.

"Goodbye, Randall Boggs. I hope to see you soon." And a moment later, Glados was alone.

Randall had just one more thought, He never had this job when Waternoose was CEO. And it had never occurred to him who had done this job before him.

As he reached the top of the stairway, he whirled around and looked behind him. Already a door came out of the floor up toward a single track. The red door was then pulled up the ascending track and disappeared a moment later. It reminded him of his own door.

Randall chuckled, "She's fast." He then looked down at his hand, "And I am the one that makes her work. I'm a genius." he laughed. With that, he turned back around and headed back to where he came from. "And I fixed a super-computer without a wrench."

He suddenly stopped, "So why did that come out…? That's the first time that's ever happened…" He started walking again, but deep in thought.

A/N There are two references in this story. One of them (the bit where Randall thanks them for the jar) is a reference to the fan fic Dearest Randall by guardian921. If you have not read that excellent fan fic, go do so now. The other is in the machine room. The machine is GLaDOs from Portal, but only in name. The machine here isn't evil, and is only similar in mannerisms (I think) and dialogue.


End file.
